Happy Holidays!

We hope you're enjoying the Christmas season and are still eating all you can before the New Year's goals go into effect on Monday. :-)

We haven't posted in a while, mainly because we felt like we just didn't have much to talk about. Life really seems like it's back to normal, and who wants to hear about normal life?! :-) Elias is doing great. Totally back to his usual self. For a while there the nights were pretty difficult as he woke up constantly. It seemed as though he was/is having some kind of phantom pain or sensation and just couldn't get comfortable. Meagan would rub his little leg, and that seemed to help him relax enough so that he could get back to sleep usually. We put him back on the strong meds at night, and that also made a huge difference in allowing him to get much needed rest.

The swelling in his leg has gone down considerably and the incision is healing nicely. Right now the plan is for Chase to cast his leg on Friday, then make the first test socket. That's exciting! We went and picked out some fabric with monster trucks on it (Elias is REALLY into monster trucks right now). Chase will laminate that material into the plastic that makes up the socket. It's gonna be a cool leg! And we're hoping that the monster truck factor will make Elias excited about wearing it. He's certainly going to be the only kid on the block with a monster truck leg. Well, as far as we know at least.

A lot of people ask how often he'll get a new leg. Don't worry- he won't still have a monster truck leg when he's 28. :-) It really depends on Elias' growth and activity. Most likely Elias will get a new leg every 6 months to a year. The usual standard is a year on average. But of course Chase will want to hook him up with the latest and greatest stuff.

Meagan recently joined a support group for parents of amputee children. She's learned a lot and has developed a more realistic picture of what life will be like in the future with Elias. In short, it'll be a lot of fun and not much different from an able-bodied kiddo! But there are a few day-to-day issues that will be different (like taking off the leg for diaper changing and certain play activities) and learning about those things has helped her know more about what to expect. It will take Elias some time to learn to use his leg. And most likely he won't even like it at first, although the monster trucks might actually engage him a little- for at least the first week anyway. Our prayer is that he takes to his leg quickly, and that his 2-year-old mind will be able to catch on quickly to the fact that this new contraption we're asking him to wear will allow him to walk and run alongside all his little friends.

Elias turned 2 on December 14. Here are a couple pictures from his party and him playing with his newest toys.





Playing in the new ball pit from Lulo- complete with 350 colorful balls!











Testing out the new drum set (with built in flotation devices for pounding out rythm in the tub).









Yummy Elmo cake. Elias is a very neat eater, and at first he insisted on only using his spoon to eat the cake. Finally he caught on to the idea that eating with your hands is much faster and more fun!